Payment fraud in Cyprus followed a clear pattern in the second half of 2025: fewer incidents, but bigger losses, according to the latest Central Bank data, which flags particular concern over credit transfer fraud.
Around 14,000 payment fraud incidents were recorded in the second half of 2025, down 5 per cent on the same period in 2024. At the same time, the total value of fraud rose 16 per cent, reaching almost 3.7 million euros.
Fraudsters struck less often, but each strike cost more. The overall picture is not entirely negative, however: Cyprus remains below the eurozone average for fraud rates across most payment methods. The main exception is credit transfers by value, where Cyprus shows a slightly higher fraud rate than the eurozone and, notably, stands out for the size of the sums lost in each successful attack.
Cyprus recorded the highest average value of a fraudulent transaction of any eurozone country: each credit transfer fraud incident averaged 6,300 euros, more than three times the eurozone average of 1,800 euros. That figure is even higher than the average value of a genuine credit transfer in Cyprus, which stands at 4,500 euros.
Card payments remain the main battleground for fraud by number of incidents. In the second half of 2025, around 13,000 cases, 93 per cent of the total, involved cards, while the remaining payment methods together accounted for around a thousand incidents. By comparison, card payments made up 79 per cent of total fraud incidents across the eurozone in the same period. The higher share of card fraud in Cyprus reflects the greater penetration and use of payment cards in the country, a pattern also noted in previous Central Bank analysis.
The bigger financial damage, however, came from elsewhere. Credit transfers cost around 2 million euros, accounting for 56 per cent of the total value of fraud, while cards accounted for 1.6 million euros, or 43 per cent. The pattern is clear: card fraud is far more frequent, but transfer fraud typically involves larger sums.
Central Bank data shows that across the eurozone, payment fraud incidents involving credit transfers accounted for 65 per cent of the total value of fraud in the second half of 2025, while card payments accounted for 28 per cent of total value. The figures show credit transfers carry a disproportionately large share of the total value of fraud relative to how often they occur, both in Cyprus and across the eurozone.
Even more concerning is who ultimately bears the loss. In credit transfer fraud, losses fall mainly on the payment service users themselves, meaning individuals and businesses. This is closely linked to so-called payer manipulation fraud, where the perpetrator deceives the victim into authorising the transfer themselves. This is the most common form of credit transfer fraud, showing that technological security alone is not enough when a fraudster manages to convince the user to carry out the transaction.
